It looks like Jon Jones was almost a part of UFC 230. The Madison Square Garden card has been in headlines for the past several weeks due to the mystery surrounding the main event. Nate Diaz and Dustin Poirier will co-main event the New York card. With such a high-profile co-headliner, fans expected a massive fight for the main event.
Talk of Jon Jones possible filling that role was rumored. The rumors were fed even more when Jones’ United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) suspension was finally announced. Jones will be eligible to fight again on October 28th. That’s just in time to possibly headline the MSG card in his home state. Instead, however, the UFC had different plans.
It was announced that a women’s flyweight title fight would serve as the featured bout instead. Valentina Shevchenko and Sijara Eubanks will fight for the vacant 125-pound title. This was an extremely underwhelming announcement for MMA fans, especially given their expectations of Jones.
Jones was recently interviewed by ESPN and discussed the matter. He revealed he was actually offered a fight for UFC 230. However, “Bones” didn’t like the little time it would’ve given him to prepare. Because of that, he was forced to decline:
“It was offered to me, but by the time it was offered to me, I had about five or six weeks to prepare for the fight. I didn’t want my first fight back to be in a situation where I felt rushed, so I declined.”
What do you think about Jones turning down a fight at UFC 230?
